Quote:
Originally Posted by FlDebra  I am always reading posts that the Yorkshire Terrier used to be so much bigger. That is a little misleading. Here is an excerpt from Joan Gordon's History of the Yorkshire Terrier on the YTCA site:
"Yorkshire Terriers were given their breed name by 1874, although it had been around since 1870. Originally they were known and shown as Broken Haired Scotch Terriers or Toy Terrier (rough and broken haired).
Almost all of the classes were divided by weight. The classes were for Broken Haired or Rough Scotch Terriers less than 5 lbs. or 6 lbs. and under; Toy Terriers 4 lbs. and under, or 5 lbs. not exceeding 7 lbs., or 6 lbs. and over; or Blue Scotch Terriers under 7 lbs. or 7 lbs. not
exceeding 9 lbs. The largest weight class in which they were reported
to have been shown was for Broken Haired Scotch Terrier 9 lbs. not exceeding 12 lbs. This record should prove that although there were larger Yorkshires they were not being shown at the dog shows. The record proves that the small size was available for breeding from early days. "
So, except for the one large Broken Haired Scotch Terrier (if 9-12 lbs can be considered large) all clases were as small or smaller than our modern day "not to exceed 7 pounds" standard. |
I'm honestly asking: if this is the case, why are there so many large yorkies at this point, some even exceeding 20 pounds? Generally speaking, small dogs produce small dogs. I know that's not a law, but it seems like if people were consistently breeding 7 lbs and under for 100 years, getting three times that simply wouldn't happen nowadays.